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Nancy Nadel - Councilmember Releases Statement On Mayor Dellums / Deborah Edgerly Issue Oakland District Three Councilmember Nancy Nadel issued this statement on the City Hall circus that surrounded Deborah Edgerly's firing by Mayor Ron Dellums: Dear Oakland Resident, We are in the midst of troubled times in Oakland. I have been receiving many calls and emails about the issues surrounding the City Administrator and the Mayor’s response. As a scientist by training, I am intent on getting all the facts before rushing to judgment as I determine the best course for the city and continue my work to empower our residents to be active, productive and proud of their city. As I become aware of the need for deeper investigation, I will approach the appropriate level of government to provide it. I want to assure my constituents and all the residents of Oakland, that I will work diligently to expose and eliminate any corruption and just plain sloppy practices that diminish our city and dev

Easy Lounge Fun On Wednesday Nights Ok. Those of you who are frequent readers of this blog space know that I've had problems with the Easy Lounge and some "unusual" bar service in the past. But I'm here to explain that's all gone. I went Wednesday night and had a fantastically relaxing time. To be totally frank, the vibe at Easy Lounge is different when two female bartenders are at the helm as opposed to the normal set of males and testosterone-laden service. The star of the show is Sylvia, who's an informative and personable image for Easy. Indeed, she's "easy to get along with and fun to talk to after a day of work. It's also the first time I've ever seen Tom Cruise' movie Cocktail. Ok. Stop with the frowning.

Ok. First, you wonder what this is doing here on this blog. Simple. It's a part of life in Oakland, just as much as Lake Merritt Farmer's Market, Whole Foods Market, Salsa dancing, or any of the good things about this city. This is one of the bad aspects of it, and one reason I avoid riding AC Transit and drive the car -- even with these high gas prices. Sorry, but someone's got to get their kids under control. This is terrible.

I have seen this group of people dancing and moving only once, and as I was in a car on the way to somewhere else, wasn't able to stop and discover when they met again. This video -- not mine -- was taken as these Oaklanders (I hope) were doing the Salsa thing under the "columns" at the end of Lake Merritt near Mac Arthur Blvd. If anyone watching this can add more detaills, please do in the comments section!

The call for a City of Oakland "hiring audit", given by both Council President Ignacio De La Fuente and Mayor Ron Dellums in the wake of the firing of Chief Administrative Officer Deborah Edgerly on Tuesday (and the focus of a July 15th City Council meeting), is a terrible, emotional, knee-jerk idea adopted by two elected officials who need to take three steps back and rethink their entire approach to this matter. They've already made a ton of errors. Dellums mistake is in appearing as if he has all of the managerial stability of a switch-hitter, changing from one way of dealing with Deborah Edgerly, then opting for a nuclear approach. Ignacio does, what he does all too well, pounce in to take advantage of a perceived weakness in his opponent. But his mistake is in his execution of this action. Remember that Dellums beat De La Fuente in the last Oakland Mayor's race, and now public perception of Dellums has reached rock-bottom, so low that Ignacio's playing

Yesterday, I was tipped off by an Oakland Resident that the Oakland Police have been wiretapping now-former Chief Administrative Officer Deborah Edgerly and say that the resulting evidence is incrminating. Now, I can't, as of this writing confirm this. It may be a couple of police officers trying to score points with an influential person, but I'm taking the claim seriously. Why? Well because it comes from people -- Oakland Police -- who can do it. I found this analysis of current California law, which reads: Both federal and California law enforcement officials may eavesdrop on and record telephone conversations without a court order under the so-called "one party consent provision" (18 USC 2511(2)(s); California Penal Code 633). In other words, if state or federal authorities have the consent of one party to a conversation (such as a government informant), the conversation may be monitored. This provision applies only to eavesdropping by law enforcement official

Today, it was annouced that Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums fired Chief Administrative Officer Deborah Edgerly after sending signals that he was going to first leave the process such that he could retire, then placed her on administrative leave, then on Tuesday of this week, decided to fire her. Regardless of where you look, it's hard to find a cool head in all of the Oakland City Hall mess. For more, read: "Chip Johnson's right about favoritism."

Today, it was announced that Rush Limbaugh signed a %400 million contract with Clear Channel. In this video , I explain that Rush's success came at a price. Michelle Sixta is a friend of mine and at one point lived on Madison, across Lake Merritt from me in Oakland, Ca. Michelle was a lot of fun. She and I would go on something called the "Back Yard Bird Watch" and generally had a good time, then lost touch after a few years. She was also -- prior to our meeting -- married to Rush as his second wife. She didn't talk about him much at all, but when she did, she explained that at first their marriage was fine, but as the years went on, Rush was more into himself than into her. He'd rather read a book than have sex. I hope she's going to get part of that $400 Million. Meanwhile, Rush has taken aim at Senator Barack Obama's run for president by employing his call screener James Gould as "Bo Snerdley" the official Obama criticizer. In my view, pick

This is a video of a fundraiser I attended on July 1st at Yoshi's In San Francisco. The hosts of the event were Hala Hijazi, the President of Professionals VIP, and Former and Legendary Speaker of The Assembly and Mayor of San Francisco Willie L. Brown, Jr. Speaker Brown was at his best, holding court, and at the end of her speech, he encouraged the crowd to "Drink. Drink. Drink. And then let me represent you for driving drunk!" Brown is now an attorney at Kay and Merkle. It was a great turn out, with everyone from Art Torres the head of the California Democratic Party, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and several SF supervisors like Aaron Peskin and Sophie Maxwell, to Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, and business leaders like Michael Johnson, who owns Yoshi's in San Francisco to Kofi Bonner of Lennar, and Steven Kay of Kay and Merkle, and my friend Beth Schnitzer who heads marketing for Pier 39 and Melissa Galliani who's the local sales manager of KFRC.

I want to be the first Oakland blogger to affirm Chip Johnson's article today charging favoritism in the City of Oakland. My response is that it doesn't start or stop at the CAO's office or with Deborah Edgerly herself, and a really complete look should go back 10 years, not just 2004. Look, I was treated so terribly by the City of Oakland when I was trying to bring the Super Bowl here , that my own mother -- who's still cancer-free by the way -- observed that "Between Blacks who are jealous of you and Whites who think someone White should be doing what you're doing, you're going through a terrible place." She was right. Oakland's government has a long history of hating well-educated Black men who don't follow the normal ethnic stereotypes. I remember 1998, when all of us from Elihu Harris' office -- I was economic advisor -- were being placed in various departments of the City of Oakland after Jerry Brown won a landslide victory to

This is my video blog on the need for Bill Clinton to be part of the Obama for America campaign effort. I feel that Obama can't win without President Clinton's support. But then the Clinton's have some image repair work to do and helping Barack's the best way to do it. ( See more over at Zennie's Zeitgeist. )

This is a video of the recent June 19, 2008 meeting to present Safeway's controversial plan to dramatically move and expand the current Safeway store at College Avenue and Claremont. The new store will be at 6310 College Avenue and roughly at what is now a corner gas station. The new 75,000 square foot store -- three times the size of the current facility -- will undoubtefly bring more traffic and also foot traffic closer to the center of Rockridge in North Oakland. That's the concern of the over 300 people who packed the room on that hot Thursday June 19th evening. The video features incumbent Councilmember Jane Brunner's presentation of the meeting, a talk with Patrick McCullough, who was Brunner's challenger in the last election primary (2008), a presentation by Dan Metzger of the Claremont / Elwood Neighbor Association, Stu Flashman of The Rockridge Community Planning Council, and Elizabeth Jewel, the planning consultant, as well as Todd Paradis, of the Safeway Rea

I created this "vlog" (video-blog) to deal with and talk about a problem I've had with certain friends. Perhaps you've had the same problem where some of your, in my case, friends who are White (or the reverse or generally interracial) don't give you proper "consideration" in your friendship, where consideration is a kind of contract that all friendships have -- a contract of basic expectations of treatment. In other words, while you call them, they don't call you, or if you are dealing with someone who's racist, they tell you that you "see racism" rather than coming to your aide. Or they are your friends as long as they're able to take advantage of you or get information from you, but when they get around their friends, you suddenly don't exist. I'd like to know your response to my video and your view. Thanks.